Obama – Just Too Good for Us
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
It was a moment of peak Spock.
Hours after the globe-rattling election of a man whom Barack Obama has total disdain for, a toon who would take a chain saw to the former president’s legacy on policy and decency, Obama sent a message to his adviser Ben Rhodes: “There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.”
Perhaps Obama should have used a different line with a celestial theme by Shakespeare: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
As president, Obama always found us wanting. We were constantly disappointing him. He would tell us the right thing to do and then sigh and purse his lips when his instructions were not followed.
Shortly after Donald Trump was elected, Rhodes writes in his new book, “The World as It Is,” Obama asked his aides, “What if we were wrong?”
But in his next breath, the president made it clear that what he meant was: What if we were wrong in being so right? What if we were too good for these people?
“Maybe we pushed too far,” the president continued. “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.”
So really, he’s not acknowledging any flaws but simply wondering if we were even more benighted than he thought. He’s saying that, sadly, we were not enlightened enough for the momentous changes wrought by the smartest people in the world — or even evolved enough for the first African-American president.
“Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early,” Obama mused to aides.
We just weren’t ready for his amazing awesomeness.
He pushed aside his loyal vice president, who was considered an unguided missile, and backed a woman who had no economic message and who almost used the slogan, “Because It’s Her Turn.” Then he put his own reputation for rectitude at risk by pre-emptively exonerating Hillary Clinto n on the email issue, infuriating federal agents who were still investigating the case.
The hunger for revolutionary change, the fear that some people were being left behind in America and that no one in Washington cared, was an animating force at the boisterous rallies for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Yet Obama, who had surfed a boisterous wave into the Oval, ignored the restiveness — here and around the world. He threw his weight behind the most status quo, elitist candidate.
President Obama could be deliberative, reticent and cautious to a fault, which spurred an appetite for a more impulsive, visceral, hurly-burly successor. He got tangled in a cat’s cradle on the twin F.B.I. investigations into Hillary’s emails and Russian meddling; in retrospect, he probably should have been more transparent about both.
Rhodes says that weeks after the election, he warned Obama that a narrative was developing that they didn’t do enough about the Russians and fake news.
“And do you think,” Obama replied, “that the type of people reading that stuff were going to listen to me ?”
Obama was well aware during the campaign that his chosen heir sometimes seemed to be phoning it in. Campaigning together in Charlotte, he was nonplused to find out that Hillary had quickly slipped out of a barbecue joint where they had stopped to get food and greet people, while the president was left on his own, shaking every hand.
Afterward he told his aides: “Most of the folks in these places have been watching Fox News and think I’m the Antichrist. But if you show up, shake their hand, and look them in the eye, it’s harder for them to turn you into a caricature. You might even pick up a few votes.”
“Michigan,” Obama said in wonder. “That’s not good.”
A version of this article appears in print on June 3, 2018 , on Page SR 9 of the New York edition with the headline: Obama – Just Too Good for Us .
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BO was always full of himself. What's the big surprise? I DO wish he would have ran 20 years later though LMAO!
Another 10 years he would have set race relations back a full 50 years instead of 40. 50 always sounds better.
Whether I've agreed or disagreed with Maureen Dowd's NYT columns, I've enjoyed reading them for many years. They're factual and well-written. To anyone who wants to call Maureen Dowd a Republican/Conservative ...
“There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.”
That is so profound, that I got the same message in a fortune cookie one time.
LOL
Trump is very anxious to meet with Kim Jong as he is aware that kim is the kind of dictator the trump wants to become and he needs advice on putting his parade together. He is making strides to be the autocrat he dreams of.
To heck with the parade, Trump wants his advice on becoming a Dynasty Dictator so he can pass his Dictatorship down to his Son Barron when he gets older and keep it in the family for generations to come.
A dream? Yes. But, for Trump it is his full intent at this point. To hell with a Democracy, a Dictatorship is far more impressive of a egomaniac. Or so Trump thinks.
So if the meeting does not work out all that well, at least Trump will have gained the know how on how to declare himself Dictator of America, which is much more productive for him and to hell with what is best for America and its people. That been his mental mantra sine he got elected, and what he has been working on non-stop since then.
Try again. The USA is not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic.
meanwhile
IF
that would be a democracy and a very chaotic political environment.
Author called off topic {SP}
Removed for context
Removed for context
So that must be why Kim came running after Trump a couple of days after Trump put his foot on Kim's neck and said no summit after Kim's belligerent comments. And now the summit seems to be ON again.
Unlike Obama's limp wrist negotiating while holding 1 pair of 2s, Trump negotiates only when he holds either a Straight Flush or 4 of a kind.
Funny. I thought this article was about Obama. Hey Jasper, do you know how to use the "Off topic" flag?
Yes, and I'm going through all of the comments now. Thanks, Buzz!
in the first year under obama I said (on the site that is now nameless) "this progressive bs is at least 20yrs too soon and the backlash will be enormous.
so... obama is finally catching up? too funny.
if they would have waited until everyone NOT educated under the no child left behind act was dead? the progressives would have owned the world.
now? the so-called bigger plan is busted...
I reckon the democrats will eventually evict the progressive bs from their party. and after that?
if ever, it will be 60 - 80yrs or more until the progressive left gets back the power they just lost.
Cheers
The comedy of lawrence o’donnell Is a gift
Seems that O'Donnell also gets a tingle.
Obama's fatal flaw was made on Jan. 21, 2009 in his Inaugural Address when he said, "We will look forward--not backward."
He should have demanded the new congress audit the war funding. Lord can only guess what would have been discovered. The GOP, the right wing and conservatism would have suffered an awful blow. He did not do that--gave it a pass and was rewarded with a stab in the back that continued for next eight years.
I think his fatal flaw was when he said the following
here are the facts
I didn't like doing it, but I've reported quite a number of comments on this seed for being Off Topic. Please comment on the topic and follow NT's CoC/ToS. Thank you.